Narbonnese Crusaders
The Narbonnese Crusaders were units of the Meridian Commonwealth Army from the militarized feudal world of Narbonne, officially Narbonne III. Narbonne III is the capital world of the Narbonne System and effectively the Narbonne Sector. Home to 5.12 billion people, the Narbonnese Crusaders were known for their line tactics, heavy attacks and overwhelming firepower. Recruitment and history A Narbonnese Crusader depends on what family they came from and starts from being born in a religious, military or regular family (poor, common, or rich). The regular (poor, common, or rich) family route Should they be born in a regular family who wished to have their children sent to join the Narbonnese military, the future crusader will be given the title at the age of seven as they were turned over to the care of the castle's lords. Usually they were placed in early training regimes of hunting with huntsmen and falconers, and academic studies with priests or chaplains. The pages then became assistants for the knights in battle, carrying and cleaning armor, taking care of the horses, and packing the baggage. They usually accompany their masters in foreign lands, even in military expeditions. Older pages were instructed by knights in swordsmanship, equestrianism, chivalry, warfare and combat using wooden swords and spears. Once they became 1t years old, the page became a squire. In a religious ceremony, the new squire swore on a sword consecrated by bishop or priest and attended to assigned duties in the lord's household. It was during this time that squires continued training in combat and were allowed to own armor. Once they were age 21, the squires will be eligible to be knighted. Knights who were selected for their bravery, courage and/or leadership were selected to be given additional military training, where they utilized the PTRS-117 rifle, an adapted version of the PTRS-41 rifle with blessed halberd and ammunitions blessed with holy water, and a shield that is hard to destroy and blast-resistant. The religious or military family route Should they be born in a religious family, they were sent to schools run by churches and then cathedrals to study with the chaplains or priests. Once they were of the age of 13, these religious children were then taught military knowledge and history before they ever applied for high school, where they can not just perform academic studies but also train with their military teachers. Those who excel in combat skills were preliminarily drafted into boot-camp while those who excel in leadership skills were drafted to a military academy; in spite of this,, and those who excel in both combat and leadership skills will be drafted into either boot-camp or military academy. Despite this, they can focus on academic studies while taking military education for three-five hours. Regardless of which, the religious students were given military training and lectures. The most important of military training, however, is learning war games which involves using and moving miniature models on large maps, which help them decide on the best course of action during conflict. Due to this, the Narbonnese military leadership usually launch war games with those coming from the rest of the other Meridian Commonwealth worlds and from the Novayan Stellar Commonwealth. Regardless of the different opponents, the semi-finals has the Novayan Stellar Commonwealth as the "penultimate opponent" while the finals have the Meridian Expeditionary Forces as the "final but worse opponent" due to their use of overwhelming firepower, attrition and defense-in-depth in war games - the Meridian Defense doctrine. Because of this, the religious or military students will have to find holes in the Meridian Expeditionary Forces' defenses while cooperating with their allies. Should they be able to somehow defeat them either by finding holes in their enemy's defenses or by thinking outside the box, they will be able to receive additional training in a war college. Once they were graduated, ten out of fifty Narbonnese will be selected to join the Narbonnese Crusaders. Equipment Narbonnese Crusaders can be recognized by their adapted knight armor, white tabards and capes, and white capirotes, the latter of which fully covered their heads. Those who are field leaders can be recognized by their unique capirotes - be they a beak, a cross, et cetera. Narbonnese Crusaders were usually equipped with railgun-adapted versions of the PTRS-41 anti-tank rifles with halberds attached on their right hands and shields which fully covered their body (and essentially the frontlines) but not their heads (thereby necessitating another line of shields to be raised and then angled over their heads. Said shields were known for being hard, sturdy and blast-resistant to the point it takes five tank rounds, one artillery round and three mortar rounds to put a whole in their shield defenses. Narbonnese Crusaders utilized the Quantradyne dropships as their method of aerial transportation, while their method of ground transportation is the XA10G Valkyrie Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The YQ21 Templar Tanks were the mainstay of the Narbonnese Crusader armored divisions, but they, like all ground vehicles, required shielding from the other Narbonnese Crusaders.